Your Body Your Consent

Four students from Brampton College visited the Royal College of Surgeons at the Hunterian Museum, to discuss the topic of ‘your body your consent’ run by the Royal College of Pathologists. While there, we debated major modern-day problems about donor consent after death and whether the family have the right to overrule the decision made by the deceased. We learnt about the Human Tissue Act and what is legally counted as tissue and what is not. For example, consent is required for skin, but not for hair and nails. We learned about the Human Tissue Act reformation in 2004, and how this has affected the development of medical research of cells. All four of us thoroughly enjoyed the day and we all agreed that we would take every opportunity to do more discussion days.